


Life is Warm

by karmula



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Christmas, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Life is Strange Gift Exchange, Post-Canon, Post-Save Chloe Price Ending, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 17:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17027286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karmula/pseuds/karmula
Summary: Shooting in the snow was never going to be easy. Max had expected challenges: the light reflecting off the ice, the endless expanse of white throwing off the contrast, the sun gleaming so brightly off the frozen ground that it looked like it was going supernova. It almost didn't seem worth the trouble. But if there was anyone she'd persevere for, it's Chloe.Alternatively: Max and Chloe celebrate their first white Christmas together with a photoshoot in the snow.





	Life is Warm

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @maxcaulfield on Tumblr for the 2018 LiS gift exchange! I was inspired by their prompts, "1. chloe and max cuddled up in flannel blankets" and "2. max taking pictures of chloe out in the snow." I hope you like it Max! :D

Max frowned as she rifled through the stack of Polaroids, the crease between her brows deepening as she examined each new image. Dud, dud, dud… Ugh. Most of the shots had come out overexposed or blurry; she could only pick out her subject in a few of them, the rest a total waste of film.

She sighed. She had expected a few mistakes, sure – shooting in the snow was never going to be easy, what with the light reflecting off the ice, the endless expanse of white throwing off the contrast, the sun gleaming so brightly off the frozen ground that it looked like it was going supernova – but not _this_ many. And Chloe had bought her that film – she hated to waste it…

“Got everything you need?”

Chloe, the subject in question, skidded to a stop beside her, automatically leaning on Max’s shoulder. The trail she left in the snow behind her looked more like something you’d see in the wake of a snow-plough than human footprints. At the sight, Max felt a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, but her lips were too heavy for anything to come of it.

“Not really,” Max replied, shrugging in an attempt at nonchalance. Chloe craned her neck to peer at the photos, but Max quickly tucked the stack away into the safety of her jeans’ pocket. They weren’t right, and she’d rather Chloe didn’t see them until they were. It wasn’t a not-trusting-Chloe thing; it was a debilitating-case-of-perfectionism thing. “Shooting in the snow is harder than I thought.”

“Hmmm… Well, normally I’d say too bad, so sad–” Chloe slipped a tattooed arm round Max’s waist and poked her in the ribs, smiling crookedly, as if to make sure Max knew she was joking. Like it wasn’t already obvious. When did she ever deny her girlfriend anything she wanted? “But since it’s Christmas, I guess we can keep going.”

“Really?” Max looked up into Chloe’s face, scrutinising her girlfriend’s eyes for any hint of insincerity. She fiddled absentmindedly with the camera hanging around her neck, running her fingers along its many grooves and ridges, sliding a fingernail along the slot where the pictures came out. It felt abnormally heavy. “Don’t you want to go open your presents? I already made you wait…”

Crows’ feet appeared at the corners of her eyes as Chloe smiled. She mimed punching Max’s shoulder, rolling her eyes as she did so. “Of course we can keep going, dummy. Presents can wait; it’s not like they’re going anywhere.” _Besides,_ _I love you._ She didn’t say it, but still. She didn’t have to.

“Oh, thank you Chloe!” Max exclaimed, throwing her arms around Chloe’s neck. Chloe leaned into the embrace, slipping her hands around Max’s waist, pulling her closer. Chloe’s hair smelled like pine needles; it was so nice to have a real tree for Christmas, even if she did have to pick the tallest one in the lot.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m the best, I know.” Chloe laughed, wriggling out of Max’s hold just in time to duck out of the way as Max flung her own half-hearted punch at Chloe’s stomach.

Max giggled, already bringing the camera to her eye once again and peering through the viewfinder. “Sure, sure. Can you hurry up and be the best at posing? I thought we were doing a photoshoot here.”

Chloe grinned, happily obliging as Max pointed her in the direction of the few spots they had left to try. There weren’t many; their yard wasn’t big. Even on the outskirts of Seattle, properties were less sprawling than they were compact, neat little things, with painted picket-fences and clipped front lawns, all lined up in a row to make room for the next cookie-cutter family. It wasn’t ideal, and this house was a rental, but it was close to the city, and at least it was a house – a change from apartment life, which was what they’d been looking for.

Plus, most apartment landlords had pretty strict pet policies, which tended to get in the way of the plans she and Chloe had begun to make for expanding their little family. She bit back a smile and wondered whether Chloe would be up for a trip to the pound on Christmas Day, though she already knew the answer.

They tread slowly through the garden, Max snapping pictures as they went careful not to slip on the ice. Everything was glazed with a light film of frost and snow, almost like a second, treacherously slippery skin. Nothing grew but the hardiest, most thorny shrubbery, so there was little in the way of a backdrop. In spring, though, they had plans to make this place their own; garden beds and veggie patches, pretty flowers and maybe even a few fruit trees, if they could get them going. They’d have their cat by then, maybe even two…

Max closed her eyes and pictured herself kneeling on the soft earth, Chloe beside her. The winter snow had thawed, revealing a carpet of soft, green grass. The knees of their jeans were stained a fertile brown, their palms much the same from sifting through the rich soil. A tabby wound its way through her legs, its tail swishing audibly against her denim-clad legs. There was another cat perched on the windowsill above them, black as the dirt on their fingers, appraising their work with bright yellow eyes. Neither of them had much of a green thumb, but they were learning. They were together. They were… happy.

As far as Max was concerned, that was all that mattered.

The snow was a nice enough background for now, though. It was almost like a blank slate. An empty canvas. It brought out the flush in Chloe’s cheeks, the faded sky-blue of her hair. The roots were showing up dirty blonde, Max noted, just a few shades darker than it used to be. She would have to help her dye it again soon.

Max double and triple-checked each shot before taking it, not wanting to miss any detail, no matter how small. There was a distinct sparkle in Chloe’s eyes, shining even brighter than the glittering ice behind her, and she was determined to capture it.

Max held each Polaroid face-down in her hand while they developed, using her cupped fingers as a shield against any stray snowflakes. It was difficult; watching the film develop, seeing her art come to life right before her eyes, was probably her favourite part of any photoshoot. Her fingers itched to flip them over, temptation so strong it was almost physical, but she resolved not look yet.

She’d save that for when she and Chloe were inside again, sitting by the Christmas tree, most likely on some blankets, seeing as the floor was littered with pine needles and stray tinsel. Maybe they could even look at them for the first time together. As one.

For the first time, the idea of sharing that first look with someone else felt less daunting than it did enticing, special – so long as that someone else was Chloe.

Finally, she directed Chloe to the base of the lone oak standing in the corner of their garden, its mass of branches thick with snow which spilled over the fence into the yard beyond. Its boughs were empty of leaves, but still bulky enough to cut out most of the sunlight, skeletal though they were. The ground surrounding it was coated with fresh snow, presumably fallen from the branches above, and its trunk was decorated with a web of frost, marking out delicate patterns that twinkled like fairy lights if you looked at them from just the right angle.

It was like a lightbulb went off in Max’s head.

“Oh, right there! That’s perfect, Chloe! Now just stay still…”

Max kept her eyes on Chloe through the viewfinder as she leaned against the tree’s sturdy trunk, one hand flung dramatically across her forehead. Even more snow drifted down from the bough above her, dusting her already-pale hair with powdery white. One stray strand cut diagonally across the porcelain of Chloe’s throat, and Max could see the tic of her pulse throbbing in the hollow above her collarbone.

Her heart fluttered in her chest. She squinted into the viewfinder, and, fighting to keep her breathing even, adjusted the exposure one last time. She frowned, stuck out her tongue, and… _Click._

“Alright, Chloe,” Max called, stuffing the second stack of shots into another pocket. “I think that’s it.

“Sweet,” Chloe beamed, bounding towards her. Her breath crystallised in the air between them, and there were tiny flakes of frost in her eyelashes. “I knew you could do it, super Max. I bet those last ones turned out awesome. Now: present time?”

Seeing Chloe like this, her face glowing with an open, genuine happiness Max had once thought lost, filled her with warmth. It was like she could actually feel her heart, already stuttering, ballooning out an extra size.

Max returned the smile effortlessly. “I’ll make the cocoa, you get the blankets?”

“Of course. You know flannel’s my specialty.” Chloe winked and popped her plaid collar.

Max laughed and extended her hand. Chloe quickly closed the distance, lacing their fingers together with the expertise of someone who had done this many, many times before. Max rubbed the pad of her thumb over Chloe’s knuckles, back and forth, slow, soothing.

They had barely taken two steps before Chloe spoke again. “Hey, Max?”

“Yeah, Chloe?”

“Life sure is good here, huh?” Max caught Chloe’s gaze and saw her blue eyes swimming with something like wistfulness. She was almost sheepish as she spoke, worrying her lower lip with her teeth in the spaces between words. “Like, sometimes I miss the way things were before… But then I remember I’ve got you, and everything feels okay, somehow. Even the stuff that’s not okay – it feels like we can work it out, y’know?”

Light from their kitchen window spilled onto the lawn, bathing Chloe’s face with warmth, turning the snow pale yellow. The lights on the tree could just be seen through the open doorframe that led to their living room, all the colours of the rainbow.

Max squeezed Chloe’s hand. “Yeah, Chloe. Life is good,” she replied in a thick voice. She could barely swallow around the lump in her throat, let alone speak. “Life is good.”

Chloe squeezed back. “I love you, Max.”

“I love you too, Chloe.”


End file.
